The Elephant Man

JOSEPH MERRICK, dubbed "The Elephant
Man", is one of the most famous patients in history, not just
on account of his frightful appearance while he was alive,
but also because of the division of opinion amongst the medical establishment
after his death over just what disease he had suffered from.

Joseph
Merrick, The Elephant Man

Mr. Joseph Merrick, The Elephant
Man, was born on August 5th 1862 - a year after the start of American Civil War - in Leicestershire, Great Britain. His mother was slightly crippled but
his brother, was normal. Joseph Merrick's development was
normal until age two when small growths began
to be noticed on his face, the first signs of a frightful disorder
which would transform him into the "Elephant Man".

By the age of seventeen Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man, joined
the British labor force working in a menial capacity at a workhouse
and left it at twenty-one for greater opportunity with freak shows
in 1883. It was here that show promoters dubbed him the "Elephant
Man" and created fantastic stories of his origins to attract the public.
Three years later in 1886 Joseph Merrick was discovered by doctor Sir
Frederick Treves, and through him, eventually gave up life as a sideshow.

Dr. Treves

Mr. Joseph Merrick, The Elephant
Man, was admitted and lived at the Royal London Hospital where he died
at twenty-seven during sleep either by dislocation of his cervical spine from the weight of his head, or from obstructive sleep apnea - he was known to sleep sitting upright to avoid suffocation.

Mr. Merrick's head measured 36 inches - roughly one-third
larger than an average human's and a great deal additional weight
for his body to support, possibly interfering in his balance and ability
to sit or stand for periods without resting his neck.

The Elephant
Man Rear Photo

Joseph Merrick's -
The Elephant Man - deformity favored the right side of his
body e.g. enlarging his right hand to a flipper like state. We do not have
access to audio recordings of him speaking but it is reasonable from looking at photographs to believe that he must
have spoken with a severe dysarthritic splutter.

The Elephant
Man Skull Front

The Elephant
Man Skull Right Side

Internal structures of Mr. Merrick's - The Elephant Man - were no less spared. Toward the end of his life severe arthritis forced him to limp and use a walking
stick . In addition, the scoliosis (curvature) of his spine revealed in surviving photographs probably
would have reduced his lung capacity predisposing him to shortness
of breath and chest infections.

The Elephant Man Bones and Body

The psychological cost to Mr. Joseph
Merrick - The Elephant Man - of his disease are not hard to imagine
in a society less educated and tolerant than today. Study of his surviving
writings prove him to have been of at least normal intelligence and
able to appreciate the horror of his condition.

Joseph's Merrick's Handwriting

"Tis true my form is something odd,
But blaming me is blaming God;
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.
If I could reach from pole to pole
Or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul;
The mind's the standard of the man."
- Joseph Merrick.

There is a divide amongst Joseph Merrick medical authorities as to just what disease
he had actually suffered from. An early theory was that Joseph
Merrick had elephantiasis - a disease of blocked sewage vessels
in the body - lymphatics - that leads to tissue swelling, but this
is not currently in favor. Neurofibromatosis had been a very
strong contender for a number of decades until 1976 when a very rare
condition called Proteus syndrome was forwarded. Proteus is
so rare that less than one hundred cases to date have ever been documented,
but it agrees with the 'fossil' evidence left by Mr. Joseph
Merrick. It describes overgrowth of soft tissues and bone, sometimes
only on one side of the body (hemihypertrophy). Classical neurofibromatosis
on the other hand, is a tumorous growth of nerve schwann sheaths (insulated
covering like that around copper wiring), and does not readily lend
itself to explain Joseph Merrick's bones i.e. The Elephant Man Bones.

The Royal London Hospital which used to keep Mr. Joseph Merrick's
bones (these have since been buried), had allowed medical sleuths
in the past, to take casts, photographs, caliper measurements, and
X-rays of The Elephant Man's Bones. We may never
conclusively know what he suffered from since efforts in years
past to preserve his bones for us, may have irreparably damaged
any DNA that forensic scientists could have used for incontrovertible proof.
Indeed, some claim that perhaps Joseph Merrick had a unique disease...
'Merrick's Disease'.

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